Project on Social Architecture in Education. Final Report. Part III: Case Studies. Chapter 9: Arts Co-op: An Experimental High School Program.

Sullivan, Ellen Wahl

This document contains chapter 9 of the final report of the Project on Social Architecture in Education. Chapter 9 is about a regional experimental high school program for the arts. Several features distinguished Arts Co-op from the other schools in the study. For one, it was a special purpose school, focused on the arts, and not offering a regular academic program at all; students took their academic subjects in the mornings and came to Arts Co-op in the afternoon. Second, it was the result of a regional planning effort, involving a number of adjacent school districts who agreed that this was a financially and educationally effective way to present special needed services. Third, the school was to be financed by tuition payments allocated by the participating school districts, voted upon yearly by each town's board of education. Arts Co-op, more than any other school in the study, stayed true to the intent and vision of the planners; they got what they had said they wanted. There were many reasons for this, and the case study attempts to illuminate these. (Author/MLF)